Nostalgia & History > New Haven Semaphores

Facing replacement after six plus decades of service, the New York, New Haven & Hartford's signaling system was documented under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 for the Historic American Engineering Record. The following three images come from a set of 45 all taken by Thomas Brown in July 1980. Please credit the Library of Congress for these visual reminders of a bygone era.
Be of good cheer,
—Mac
www.lowellamrine.com

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These mini-semaphores are certainly different.
Bob

Very different looking semaphores!!

Larry

The ground units had an interesting look to them as well.
—Mac

refarkas Wrote:
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> These mini-semaphores are certainly different.
> Bob

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So what were these semaphores called?
Sema-Pots??
We, outlanders, want to know.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

Aren't dwarf semaphores and dwarf signals in general subject to getting buried in snow storms and becoming obscured?

Fun trip back. Must have been expensive to replace all that heritage at such a late date in the New Haven's run. Thanks for sharing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/23 09:05 by King_Coal.

As I understand it, the signal system changes were built into the change over from 25 cycles to 60 cycles and the removal of the NYNH&H power house that supplied the signals and the overhead. By then the New Haven and even Penn Central were consigned to the history books. Thank to all for the kind comments.
—Mac

King_Coal Wrote:
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> Fun trip back. Must have been expensive to replace
> all that heritage at such a late date in the New
> Haven's run. Thanks for sharing.

They had a lot more manpower back then to clean up snow.

Victor Baird

JPB Wrote:
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> Aren't dwarf semaphores and dwarf signals in
> general subject to getting buried in snow storms
> and becoming obscured?

Here's a dwarf semaphore I took at the Bridgeport, CT station in 1970. The track here is elevated (hence no ballast), and the signal is tucked into a cut-out in the fence designed to keep passengers from crossing the tracks.

Ray

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And crews managed to see it. Amazing.
—Mac

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> Here's a dwarf semaphore I took at the Bridgeport,
> CT station in 1970. The track here is elevated
> (hence no ballast), and the signal is tucked into
> a cut-out in the fence designed to keep passengers
> from crossing the tracks.
>
> Ray

MacBeau Wrote:
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> Facing replacement after six plus decades of
> service, the New York, New Haven & Hartford's
> signaling system was documented under Section 106
> of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
> for the Historic American Engineering Record. The
> following three images come from a set of 45 all
> taken by Thomas Brown in July 1980. Please credit
> the Library of Congress for these visual reminders
> of a bygone era.
> Be of good cheer,
> —Mac
> www.lowellamrine.com

New Haven's left-handed semaphores (they drop to the left, not right). Only semaphores in North America that I know of to do so.